LOCAL FAITHFUL TO HONOR OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE WITH THEATER, MUSIC, ANNUAL PROCESSION & MASSES
November 13, 2024  |  By:   |  Press Releases  |  

Since mid-October the images of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego have traveled to 22 parishes and
cemeteries and are slated to visit another 18 locations throughout the Archdiocese of Los Angeles as local
faithful prepare for festivities to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe leading up to her feast day on December 12. The
annual celebrations honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe will begin on December 1 with the 93rd annual
Procession and Mass honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego in East Los Angeles; on December
6 and 7 the play “Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin” will be presented at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Angels; and the “Las Mañanitas” musical tribute and Mass will take place at the Cathedral on December 11.

“It has been almost 495 years since the visitation of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and she came to this place bearing
the greatest of gifts,” said Archbishop José H. Gomez. “In this sacred image that she left for us, we can see that
she is carrying Jesus in her womb, under her praying hands, his heart is beating beneath her heart. May we
dedicate ourselves again to Mary’s mission of bringing Jesus to our country and all people. This country, every
country in North and South America, are under her mantle, under her loving protection and care.”

A pilgrimage of the images of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego to parishes and cemeteries
throughout Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties from October 19 to December 1 serves as spiritual
preparation for the faithful for the 93rd Procession and Mass honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe, the oldest
religious procession in Los Angeles. The procession – themed “Mother of the Eucharist” – was established in
1931 by Mexican Catholics who fled persecution by the Mexican government during the Cristero War.
Thousands of people, including Aztec dancers, Mexican equestrian troupes and Guadalupano groups from
parishes throughout the Archdiocese, will gather on December 1 in East Los Angeles for the procession
beginning at 10:30 a.m. at Our Lady of Solitude Parish (4561 E. Cesar Chavez) and continue for one mile along
Cesar Chavez Ave. to the East Los Angeles College Stadium for a Holy Mass at 1 p.m.

Photos from this year’s pilgrimage visits are available here and additional information about the 2024
Procession and Mass, including how to support, are available at lacatholics.org/guadalupe.

The Latino Theater will return to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on December 6 at 7 p.m. and
December 7 at 6 p.m. with its live play, “La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin,” the company’s signature
holiday theatrical production since 2002. The play features more than 100 actors, singers and indigenous Aztec
dancers, children and seniors from the community. The pageant reveals the story of St. Juan Diego, a simple
peasant to whom the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe appeared on four occasions in 1531 in the hill of Tepeyac, near
Mexico City. The play was adapted by Evelina Fernández from the mid-16th century text, The Nican Mopohua.
For more information, visit https://www.latinotheaterco.org/lavirgen.

On December 11, the annual “Las Mañanitas” celebration at Cathedral will begin at 6 p.m. with indigenous
dancers and free seasonal treats on the Cathedral Plaza, and veneration of the relic of the tilma of St. Juan
Diego, on which the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared 491 years ago. The Cathedral is
home to the only relic of the tilma outside of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. At 10 p.m.,
the celebration continues inside the Cathedral with a special Rosary with the participation of local talents. The
musical tribute, or serenata, begins at 11 p.m., with guest singers invited to serenade Our Lady and sing “Las
Mañanitas,” a traditional Mexican birthday song to honor her Feast Day. The program will be in Spanish and
the festivities will culminate with midnight Mass celebrated by Archbishop Gomez.

The celebrations recall the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to St. Juan Diego at Tepeyac, Mexico, in December
1531, when she left her image on his tilma, or cloak. The Cathedral houses the only known relic, or piece of
the tilma outside of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City which was presented to the
Archdiocese of Los Angeles from the Archbishop of Mexico City in appreciation and friendship after Los
Angeles Archbishop John J. Cantwell led a pilgrimage to the Basilica in Mexico City in the early 1940s. Given
the natural agave fibers used to make the tilma, experts say it is miraculous that the relic at the Cathedral in Los
Angeles, and the rest of the tilma in Mexico City, have survived for almost five centuries.

For more information please visit lacatholics.org/guadalupe and follow along with #GuadalupeLA.